Spot This Man in the Airport and He'll Upgrade You to First Class

Memorize this dude’s face. Young Ed Norton? Touch of Ryan Gosling? Some Justin Bieber in the hairline? Blue eyes, scruff?

There’s a point to this endeavor: Spot this guy spreading out in this first-class seat — and he’ll give it to you, removing himself and his highlights to that P.O.S. middle-seat in economy you’d resigned yourself to.

The dude pictured is Gilbert Ott of God Save the Points, a website devoted to the craft of fare-hacking. We like his site — it’s especially good for deals, like around $500 to Thailand.

Here’s the thing: We never would have thought to suggest it — the world of travel deal websites is an overpopulated one — until Ott’s contest, dubbed the “Catch Me If You Can Promotion.” So points to him for a cheap, fun and memorable campaign. Now some big brands are buying in — like British Airways, which is offering additional upgraded seats to Ott-spotters. We hope the fun ‘n’ games continue through the end of the year — Ott says he’ll be flying regularly, with hints to his upcoming routes shared on his social.

We’re finding it hard to see a downside in all this — unless you look just like him and plan to fly in biz or first class for the rest of the year, in which case we say: We hope you enjoy the extra attention.

Diane Rommel

Diane Rommel has written for The Wall Street Journal, Outside, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Travel + Leisure, Wallpaper and Afar, as well as The Cut, Buzzfeed, Huffington Post and McSweeney’s. She once drove from London to Mongolia, via Siberia.